Senior Software Engineering Manager

Kiavi is one of the nation’s largest private lenders to residential real estate investors (REIs). We harness the power of data & technology to offer our customers a simpler, more reliable, and faster way to access the capital they need to scale their businesses. 

Formerly known as LendingHome, we’re committed to helping REIs revitalize the approximately $25 trillion worth of aged U.S. housing stock to provide move-in ready homes and rental housing for millions of Americans across the country.

Combining our technology and industry expertise, Kiavi has grown to a team of over 400 and has won many awards over the years including Forbes Fintech 50, Finovate Awards, Best Digital Mortgage Platform, Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, and many more. 

• Loans Funded: $27 billion in loans funded
• Homes financed: 100,000+ projects funded for our customers across the country
• Geography: 45 states + D.C. where we lend to REIs so they can revitalize neighborhoods
• Employees: Over 450 employees with competitive benefits and perks

This position can be based remotely in any of our approved hiring regions. Our hybrid distributed workforce philosophy allows us to find the best talent in the country and build diverse teams, while allowing our colleagues to work from the location that works best for them. 

The Opportunity

Kiavi has achieved a distinct advantage over our competitors by utilizing our 10+ years of proprietary loan origination data to train models. Combined with our purpose-built loan origination system, this enables us to originate loans faster and more efficiently than our competitors with fewer errors and superior credit performance. We are doubling down on this strategy and incorporating emerging Generative AI capabilities to widen the gap and create future opportunities for the business. To get there, we are creating a dedicated team to focus on automating highly complex credit policy rules, loan origination workflows, document review, and customer experiences by leveraging emerging AI capabilities. We are looking for a seasoned engineering manager to lead this team. The ideal candidate will have real world experience integrating both traditional ML and modern Gen AI capabilities into production software products and iteratively improving them based on user data and feedback. You will have the opportunity to learn about Kiavi’s distinctive tech and data advantages while also leveling up the team with your unique insights and best practices. You will play a pivotal role in building upon Kiavi’s past achievements and delivering the next wave of tech-driven success for Kiavi.

What You'll Do (The Role)

• Lead & Mentor a high-performing, full-stack engineering team. You'll be responsible for hiring, coaching, and mentoring, with a strong emphasis on developing the careers of your engineers.

• Drive Technical Strategy: You will own the technical vision and roadmap for integrating Kiavi’s proprietary AI/ML technology into our loan origination platform and loan products. You'll partner with senior leaders and product managers to define what's possible and how to get there.

• Execute with Excellence: Guide your team in shipping complex, large-scale projects where availability, correctness, and security are critical. This includes hands-on technical design, code reviews, and ensuring your team’s architecture is sound, scalable, and meets business needs.

• Own the Full Lifecycle: You will lead the end-to-end execution of your team's roadmap, from initial planning and milestone definition with Product Management, to managing timelines, communicating risk, and collaborating with key stakeholders throughout.

• Champion Quality: Set and maintain a high bar for engineering and operational quality, with a sharp focus on the compliance and correctness required in our lending systems. You'll leverage data from customers and systems to iterate and improve our products rapidly.

What We're Looking For (Qualifications)

• Proven AI/ML Leadership: You have successfully led a team in building and shipping production software systems that leverage traditional ML and/or Gen AI models to achieve concrete business goals.

• Technical Depth: You are a former engineer and not afraid to "dive deep." You can comfortably lead technical design discussions, review code, and challenge your team on technical trade-offs.

• People Leadership: You are an exceptional people manager who knows how to attract, develop, and retain top talent. You see mentorship as one of the most important parts of your job.

• Execution: You have a track record of delivering complex, large-scale projects in a dynamic, fast-paced business environment.

• Clear Communication: You can clearly articulate a vision, create alignment, and communicate technical and business risks to stakeholders at all levels.

• Experience: You have 10+ years of software engineering experience, including at least 5+ years in a direct people management role.

• B.S. degree (or higher) in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field (or equivalent experience).

• No real-estate or mortgage experience is needed, but a hunger to learn our business is!

Kiavi takes a market-based approach to pay, and pay may vary depending on your location. The expected annualized base pay range for this full-time role to be performed remotely is ~200K to $300K base + equity + benefits. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries. Within the range, the successful candidate’s starting pay will be determined based on job-related skills, experience, qualifications, work location, and market conditions. Your recruiter can share more about the specific base pay range for your preferred location during the hiring process. Please note that the pay range listed above reflects the base salary only, and does not include the target value of equity or benefits.

Benefits and Perks 

• Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance: Kiavi offers free employee-only coverage for medical, dental, and vision plans. Dependents receive a heavily discounted premium, competitively placed in the 90th percentile for cost.
• Health Savings Account (HSA): For those enrolled in a High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP), Kiavi provides an annual employer contribution to HSAs: $500 for individual coverage and $1,000 for dependents.
• Disability and Life Insurance: Immediate access to short-term and long-term disability insurance, as well as group life and AD&D insurance, with coverage at 1x annual salary.
• Remote Work Policy: Kiavi supports working remotely for day to day activities for most roles and occasionally may ask employees to gather in person for key meetings, trainings, team building etc. For remote workers, Kiavi offers a one-time office setup reimbursement of up to $500 and a monthly $85 stipend for internet and phone expenses. For in-office workers, Kiavi offers employer contributions to commuter benefits account, either for parking or public transportation.
• Flexible Time Off: Employees are empowered to manage their own time off, with no strict limits, as long as it's approved by their manager.
• Paid Leaves: Up to 8 weeks of paid leave for medical or caregiver purposes, and 12 weeks of paid maternity/paternity leave. Short-term disability leave is also available for birthing mothers.
• 401(k) & Company Match: A 401(k) plan managed by Fidelity, with Kiavi matching 100% of contributions up to 3% of compensation or $6,000 (whichever is less). All employer contributions are immediately vested.

Protect yourself from recruitment scams:

• If you are offered an interview or a role with Kiavi, this will be communicated with you through email, via an official email address ending in @kiavi.com or @lendinghome.com. 
• You will never be asked for payments of any kind during the process.
• We also never communicate with candidates via Whatsapp at any point during the recruitment process. 
• We won’t ask for personal information or data via text message. If you have any concerns regarding how genuine a text message is, please contact your recruiter.
• You can find our official Kiavi careers page here. We advise you to check that the page details and website addresses match if you have any concerns.